Wladyslaw I Herman

Wladyslaw I Herman of Poland (1040-4 June 1102) was the Duke of Poland from 1079 to 1102. He became king after his brother Boleslaw II the Brave was exiled after a rebellion by nobles, and he was succeeded by his son Zbigniew.

Biography
Wladyslaw was the second son of King Casimir I the Restorer of Poland and his wife Maria Dobroniega of Kiev. While he was in his thirties, Poland fell into a crisis in which the nobles revolted against King Boleslaw. Only in 1080 was order truly being restored with Wladyslaw Herman taking the throne with his brother being forced into exile. Siding with the Pope in his recent clashes with the Kaiser had helped establish Poland as a legitimate Catholic power, ensuring the Reich could no longer expand eastward with the blessing of Christendom.

With Poland divided between facing the Holy Roman Empire to the west, Hungary to the south, the Livonians to the north, and the Kievan Rus to the east, Wladyslaw had to choose his next battle wisely. He decided to pacify the rebellious German barons and the Livonian pagans, conquering much of their castles. Under his rule, Poland controlled present-day Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and much of eastern Germany, and he saw to it that Cardinal Godzimir the Peaceful converted the denizens of these lands to Christianity. Wladyslaw was the first man to launch a war in the name of Christendom in the Baltics, but his attempts to christen his wars as "Crusades" were declined by Pope Gregory VII. His rule also saw Poland send Tobiasz of Slupsk on the First Crusade in 1097.